Crushing On The Geek (Crushing On You) (10 page)

      The ballroom was crowded with lawyers from both Mr. Page's firm and others, most of whom seemed to have brought along their families. Through the crowd Tamara spotted Hayden standing beside a man whom he looked very much like. Hayden had inherited his broad shoulders, mess brown hair, and brown eyes from his dad. The man laughed at something and Tamara added his smile to the list. Hayden must have felt her staring at him, because he turned in her direction and grinned. She smiled back and gave a tiny wave, hoping her dad wouldn't notice. Hayden was wearing a suit, but had discarded the jacket somewhere along the way. His tie had some design on it, but she couldn't tell what it was from where she was.

      “You know that kid?” Mr. Page asked.

      “Yeah, he's in the Chess club too.”

      “He's the guy you were talking about in the car.”

      “Why would you think that?”

      “He looks like the sort of kid that would make a fool of himself if he tried to talk to a girl,” Mr. Page chuckled.

      “Shh!”

      “What? Afraid your old man is going to embarrass you?”

      “No, I know you will before the night's done. Should I resign myself to the fact?”

      “Nah, I'll try to behave.”

      “Please do.”

      “His dad's a good lawyer. I worked with him on this case.”

      “Good to know,” Tamara said, “Can we quit talking about it now? He's walking our way.”

      “Fine. I'll shut up,” Mr. Page laughed.

      “Hey,” Hayden said, pulling her into a quick hug. Startled, Tamara almost tripped over her own feet, but manage to right herself by the time he pulled away.

      “Dad, this is Hayden. He's in the Chess Club,” Tamara said, pretending the previous conversation hadn't taken place. “This is my dad.”

      “You can call me George,” Mr. Page extended his hand.

      “Nice to meet you,” Hayden said, grinning at Tamara.

      “You too,” Mr. Page said, “I'm going to see if they have the appetizers out yet.”

      “See you later, Dad,” Tamara laughed.

      “You look nice tonight,” Hayden said, “Not that you don't always look nice….”

      “Thank you,” Tamara cut him off before he made a fool of himself again, “Let's get something to drink and find somewhere in the back to sit.”

      “In the back?”

      “Yeah, that way we can talk why they make their speeches and we won't look rude.”

      “Fair enough,” Hayden laughed.

      “You haven't been to any of these parties, have you?” Tamara grinned.

      “No,” he shook his head.

      “Attend enough of them and you'll be texting under the table. I usually bring Amber along, but she's..”

      “Fighting with Mr.Kissy Face.”

      “Yeah,” Tamara nodded.

      “A soda please,” Tamara said to the bar tender.

      “Make that two.”

      “Sure,” the bartender said, and handed them each a can of soda.

      “Where to?” Hayden asked.

      “This way,” Tamara lead him through the maze of people. Stopping now and then to say hello to people she had met at previous parties.

      “You know everyone,” Hayden laughed.

      “Not everyone, just most of them,” Tamara said, sinking down into a chair at the back left corner of the room. “It's a job hazard of being a child of the firm.”

      “Child of the Firm, that sounds like a horror movie.”

      “Feels like it too sometimes. It's full of thou shalls,” Tamara took a sip of her soda, “Thou shall participate in our scholarship fund. Thous shall do whatever it takes to complete the program.”

      “Dad wants me to enroll.”

      “You should,” Tamara nodded, “As long as they don't disband the chess club you should be fine.”

      “Well, if we lose another tournament they might,” he laughed.

      “I hope not,” Tamara shook her head, “Greg would never let us hear the end of it.”

      “Welcome!” a microphone magnified voice said from the stage at the front of the room, “We're glad you all could come out and join us in celebrating yet another victory!”

      “Here we go,” Tamara whispered.

      “How are you going to make it through graduation? Hayden stifled a laugh.

      “I'll be toward the middle section because of my last name. I'll just make snide comments then too,” she giggled.

      Her dad shot her a dirty look over his shoulder and Tamara fell silent. She watched Hayden as he listened closely to the senior partner speak, mildly amusedly that he was actually listening. When she was younger Tamara would listen too, but after a hundred dinner parties all the speeches blur together into a bundle of melancholy. Her father expected her to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer, but Tamara couldn't imagine being forced to endure these dinner parties for the rest of her life. Glancing around she noticed the tables of adults dotted with wine glasses and liquor cups. Was that how they endured the mandatory attendence at such parties?

      Tamara wiggled around in her seat trying to get comfortable. Hayden grinned at her and draped his arm around her shoulders and whispered, “It won't be much longer.”

      “You don't know them very well, do you?”

      Hayden chuckled softly and returned his attention to the front of the room. Tamara's ears rang and she rubbed their backs trying to rid herself of the buzzing.

      “You hear it too?” Hayden asked, sticking a finger into her left ear.

      “Yeah and I don't like it. It reminds me of the noise I heard when I found the hand prints on my mirror.”

      “I think it's going to rain and the air pressure can cause a ringing in the ears,” he whispered.

      “Yeah, but it's really loud. Why isn't it happening to anyone else?”

      “They're probably ignoring it.”

      A shattering crash sounded from behind the bar, startling the crowd and urging Tamara to her feet. The crowd turned the heads in unison, most wearing an expression of annoyance with the bartender who was busy trying to prevent another shelf of bottles from toppling over like its neighbor to the left had done, causing the resounding crash.

      “A little help!” he shouted to the waiters, who were frozen in terror. The hiss of champagne, wine, and liquor spraying from over two dozen bottles nearly masked the noise of the tiny laughter, but Tamara could hear it. Through the showers of alcohol Tamara caught a glimpse of a pair of tiny shimmering wings.

      “Did you see that?” she hissed to Hayden.

      Taking her hang gently Hayden pulled her back into her seat and whispered, “Accidents happen all the time. This doesn't mean anything.”

      “You didn't see the wings?”

      “No,” Hayden shook his head.

      “Why don't we just skip straight to dinner tonight, folks ?” Mr. Herold, the senior partner and owner of the firm said with a nervous laugh.

      “Sounds like a plan!” Tamara said loudly enough for the entire room to hear. The crowd errupted in laughter and the tension that had been hanging in the air began to dissipate.

      “You heard the lady,” Mr. Herold laughed, “Let's eat.”

      The room quickly filled with waiters carrying appetizers. Tamara wasn't too fond of the dry salads they always offered, but she couldn't say no to the mozzarella sticks.

      “At least the food is good,” Hayden said, although he was still watching the bartender and a couple of servers trying to clean up behind the bar.

      Tamara was about to make a sound of agreement as she bit into her third mozzarella stick, but a clanging racket made her swallow hard and jump to her feet again. Several of the servers had dropped platters of food and drink. Large spots of the floor were splattered with various globs and heaps of what should have been the party's dinner. The distant laughter sounded again, but this time Tamara wasn't the only one who heard it.

      Mr. Herold was on his feet and stalking towards the hotel's food director. The tiny bespectacled man was wringing his hands and apologizing loudly, but Mr. Herold wasn't listening. Another group of servers dropped more platters and marinara sauce splattered onto his brown suit.

      “What is the meaning of this?” Mr. Herold yelled, his face turning a violent shade of red and his hands trembling, “Have you foolish baboons mistaken my firm's dinner party for a gathering of some clown college?”

      “No, sir. I assure you, none of this was planned!”

      “Like hell it wasn't!” Mr. Herold shouted, “I heard you guys laughing!”

      “Sir, I assure you none of my staff would ever laugh at such a failure of an evening!”

      “You won't be getting any more business from our firm nor any donations!” Mr. Herold shouted, waving his stubby fingers in the air.

      Several people had already left and even more were on their feet and headed towards the door.

      “Mr. Herold,” the bespectacled man plead, “If you just allow us a few minutes, just a few minutes, to clean up, your party can continue.”

      “I think not!” Mr. Herold shouted. His mousey-looking wife appeared at his side, flushed with embarrasment and led him away.

      “Tamara!” Mr. Page shouted over the crowd.

      “I think that's my cue to leave,” she said.

      “I'll text you later,” Hayden said.

      A swarm of gnats descended upon those who remained. Tamara moved quickly, trying to stay out of the path of bugs, but upon closer examination she realized they weren't gnats at all. They were faeires! Hundreds upon hundreds of them, little winged people, pinching and proding people.

      Tamara glanced over her shoulder to where Hayden had been, but he was gone now, too. Deciding it would be best to find her dad and get the hell out of dodge. She made her way through the crowd of people swatting at their attackers, trying to escape their sharp fingers. Three steps away from the exit Tamara slipped on a glob of banana pudding and landed hard on the floor. A pair of strong arms helped her to her feet.

      She thanked the man as she attempted to get as much of the pudding off her dress as possible. Tamara cried out in frustration. Her mother was going to kill her if the dry cleaners weren't able to salavage the dress into something wearable. Not waiting for her dad, Tamara pushed her way through the crowd and out the double doors. Her father was waiting in the car.

      “About damn time,” he said as she got in.

      “Sorry, I slipped,” Tamara said, not looking at him. Hot angry tears threatened to escape.

      “Let's just get home. We can order a pizza or something. The nerve of those servers and the director!”

      Tamara zoned out as her father droned on and on about the incompetence of the hotel staff. She felt bad for them, because after all they were attacked just like everyone else, not that her father would believe her, though.

     
I bet Hayden believes me now
, she thought, stifling a giggle. She was suddenly filled with the urge to break into a fit of laughter, but wasn't sure why. Tonight would have been funny if you were watching it from the outside or if you weren't one of the people who caused it, but Tamara had been there and was guilty, she felt she had no right to laugh. Her purse vibrated and she ignored it, not wanting to interrupt her dad's rant.

      “I'm going to drop you off to get cleaned up and go get something to eat, any preferences?”

      “Nothing with bananas,” Tamara said as she got out of the car.

      Once inside the empty house Tamara headed straight for the bathroom. She kicked off her shoes halfway up the stairs and left her tights outside the door. After carefully taking the dress off without covering herself with banana pudding, she wiped off as much of the goop as she could. It was beginning to dry, so there wasn't much she could do about it. The dress was dry clean only.

      After changing into her pajamas Tamara remembered the text she ignored on the way home and retrieved her cellphone, settling into her dad's armchair.

     
Surprise, surprise
, she thought,
it's from Hayden.

      “Okay, I believe you now.”

      “Good. If you didn't I'd say you were the crazy one.”

      “Nope. I'm just as sane as you are.”

      “Poor thing.”

      “?”

      “I'm being driven crazy very quickly.”

      After sending the message she turned off her phone.

Chapter Nine

      Tamara's alarm screeched and she jumped to her feet. She hadn't slept at all. Instead she lay awake counting down the hours, then the minutes, until she could climb out of bed without drawing attention to herself. Every creaky floorboard and flickering shadow made her nervous. Despite her lack of sleep Tamara was wide awake. Her eyes were huge and bloodshot. She dressed quickly and headed downstairs. Tina and Tally were staying home to go to their checkups, so they could sleep in. The house was quiet as Tamara ate a breakfast of a bagel with cream cheese. She had skipped dinner last night, having lost her appetite as a result of being covered in banana pudding.

      When she was finished with breakfast Tamara dropped her plate into the soapy dishwater from the night before and turned to double check her backpack. She knew everything was still inside, where it should be, but she needed something to do with her hands.

      The water in the sink sloshed and Tamara snapped in the direction of the sink. The plate was airborne and traveling straight for her head. Tamara's reaction time hadn't slowed since the volleyball team was disbanded. Her hands sprang up in front of her face instinctually. The edge of the plate collided with her palms and her fingers gripped the soapy dish. It slipped from her grasp, but she recaptured it inches from the floor.

      “Stop it you guys!” she said out loud.

      “Who are you talking to, Tam?” Mr. Page asked, entering the kitchen and heading straight for the coffee pot.

      “I was practice my monologue for drama,” she lied.